Bomb Near a Police Vehicle Kills 13 in North Chechnya

By SOPHIA KISHKOVSKY

Published: July 20, 2005

At least 13 people were killed and more than 20 wounded Tuesday when a bomb exploded near a police vehicle in northern Chechnya, according to government officials, who called it a terrorist attack.

''The bloody events perpetrated by terrorists have caused extreme indignation on the part of the entire Chechen people,'' said Chechnya's pro-Moscow president, Alu Alkhanov, in a statement reported by Russian news agencies.

The blast occurred in Znamenskoye, a town in the Nadterechny district, which borders the Russian Stavropol region.

Russia's NTV television channel reported that the bomb went off after a brigade of policemen arrived to investigate a police car that had been found with a body in it. Other news agencies reported that the first vehicle had come under fire before the explosion.

The dead were mostly police officers but also included civilians, one of them a boy who had been riding by on his bicycle, the news agency RIA Novosti reported.

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia pointed to the attack in asking his government to allocate money for the strengthening of Russia's borders.

''The last tragic events in the Nadterechny district of Chechnya show that everything that is planned there must be done, and done as quickly as possible,'' Mr. Putin said in televised remarks at a meeting with government ministers.

Coverage of the blast on Russia's main television channels, which are loyal to the Kremlin, was muted.

Despite official claims and news reports to the contrary, the Northern Caucasus and Chechnya have grown increasingly unstable in recent months. Russian newspapers, which are much more critical, routinely describe Dagestan, which borders Chechnya, as being on the verge of war. Ten Russian commandos were killed in a bombing there earlier this month, and attacks against policemen and public figures have become almost a daily occurrence in recent months.

Map of Russia highlighting Znamenskoye: Officials said a blast in Znamenskoye yesterday was terrorism.